Casey Affleck has signed up to star in Paradise Lost. The 36-year-old actor will star alongside Bradley Cooper and Benjamin Walker in the movie, which tells the tale of the battle between good and evil.

Affleck will play the angel Gabriel in the project, which sees Bradley star as vengeful Lucifer, who raises a hellish army after he is cast out of heaven. Dijmon Hounsou is also set to star as the angel of death Abdiel in the film, which is being directed Alex Proyas. The movie - which is set to come to cinemas in 2013 - is expected to have a particularly unique visual appeal, and will be shot in 3-D.

"I've sometimes thought that only an insane person would want to make this movie, because it's visually audacious and has to live up to a classic poem that is so beloved. I don't think the visuals could have been done justice until now, which is the great fun of being a film director in this modern age of visual effects," Proyas said.

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It was bound to happen sooner or later. Another host from E!‘s The Soup would start to get the attention he/she deserved

Back in 1991, actor Greg Kinnear kicked off what was then known as Talk Soup. He is now probably better known for his Oscar-nominated work in As Good as It Gets. Since then, other hosts have moved on from that weekly program to varying degrees of success. (The most notable ones being Hal Sparks and Aisha Tyler.) Could current frontman Joel McHale soon be outgrowing the recap roundup as well?

It has just been announced that the 36-year-old comedian will be branching out from the clip show to work on a much larger project. Joel will soon be starring in The Informant, a new movie from director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean’s Eleven). McHale is slated to play an FBI agent who will work alongside Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap) and Matt Damon.

The nominations for the 80th Annual Academy Awards were announced bright and early Tuesday morning from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Assuming the ceremony goes on as scheduled, you can see the live broadcast Sunday, February 24th on ABC.

Notable additions/omissions from today’s announcement:

Based on the major categories alone, it looks like Michael Clayton may be the frontrunner. It received six nominations.

Having exhausted all their sequel choices, theater patrons quickly moved on to the latest offering: Ocean’s Thirteen. Despite general indifference for the series’ second movie, Steven Soderbergh and friends faced down the unlucky number and rolled the dice again. Their gamble paid off well this weekend when they took down Captain Jack Sparrow and his mates

Of course, viewers who crave the comfort of familiarity can still manage to have discerning taste. Eli Roth’s Hostel: Part II only rounded enough voyeurs to rank a mediocre 6th place. Here’s to hoping that the era of grisly horror movies is once again over…